I forgot how much I hate weekend tournaments. One has to wake up at the crack of dawn, quickly shower, make coffee and already its time to get in the car so as not to be too late. Pen? check. My first game was a slug-fest that could have gone either way. Laurence then put the rook on the wrong square.
After lunch I faced the Olympiad team's board 5, Max Illingworth. I have been looking at Kings Gambits with some of my students. It would be hypocritical if I didn't play it myself occasionally. I got a dream position out of the opening, following a plan of Hikaru Nakamura, and then chose not to play one of the winning moves but tried to lose instead. Max didn't let me and so we drew.
By evening we were no longer playing chess but trying not to blunder. Fat chance! Justin swapped all the wrong bits and ended up in a hopeless ending. My legendary technique sufficed for another draw.
And so it's 12.30am and my alarm will try to wake me at 7am. Groan.....
Indeed, a major mystery in the chess world: most players are night owls, so why are so many chess organizers morning larks? http://www.chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=7538
ReplyDeleteInteresting read. Good luck in the next rounds.
ReplyDeleteHenrik Mortensen.